Infinity Tables @ AdeptiCon 2016!

Just a quick post up to show everyone the tables that were played on at AdeptiCon this year for Infinity! 

AdeptiCon 2016: Infinity Seminar!

Infinity at AdeptiCon.  It's been a thing for a while now, but this year, Corvus Belli was in attendance!!

...none of you are really going to read this, are you?  You're just here for the Seminar pictures.  Okay fine, go ahead and click on through and drool til your heart's content.  I can't say I blame you!

Illustration: Evin and Thargadd

Quite a while back my good friend Mordian7th, from his namesake blog Mordian the 7th, had asked if I would be able to illustrate a couple characters from said 7th Mordian Regiment of the Imperial Guard.

And yes, they are still and will ever still be the Imperial Guard to me.  Moving on.

I have just gotten my new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil recently, and decided that his request would be the first done using these two tools and the app Procreate...

Wanna see how it turned out?

Illustrations and 2-Dimensional Musings

Ever since I was 3 years old I've been drawing or painting, creating some sort of visual art.  Of course, you could say that of any child really, refrigerators are full of drawings by children all across the globe.  But how many of those children who are encouraged to imagine and explore with their creativity continue past age 10?  Maybe 13?  Sure we all see doodles in the margins of notebooks, but how many teenagers carry sketchbooks with them on a daily basis, or ask for new art supplies for their birthdays?

For 35 years now I've been drawing and painting.  For 35 years I've listened to my dad's voice in my head from when I was a child saying that I could do anything I wanted to when I grew up.

Well I wanted to be an artist.

Building and Growing a Community

Back in mid-November of last year, there was an interesting post over at the WGC Infinity Facebook Group.  It read like this:

"I'd like to talk about Community Growth.  I'm the table top guy at a shop in Richmond, VA and we have a small but tight Infinity group that I'd like to make much larger because we have the space to run HUGE events and I love the game.  What helped you guys grow your communities?"  -  Mike DeBolt

This was an amazing post that sparked a huge amount of discussion.  Discussion, not arguments, debates or complaints, but honest, true and helpful discussion on the topic.

See?  The internets can be nice sometimes...

Healthier Gamer Series: A Year in Review

"But Tim, what happened to the updates for November and December?"

Honestly, life swallowed them up and didn't even spit them back out.  As you could probably tell from my lack of articles in December, I didn't get much writing done at all unfortunately.  Typically my time management isn't really that bad, but apparently during the holiday months I blink and suddenly it's the second week of January!

Enough excuses though, on to the review!

Happy New (Hobby) Year!

2015 has come and gone, and so very much has happened in the span of the past 12 months.  We’ve seen the death of a much-loved game in Warhammer Fantasy, and the rise of many upstarts in the industry such as Infinity, Malifaux, Dark Age, Firestorm Armada, and many more.

I’ve also seen much in the way of change from a personal standpoint as a hobbyist.  Some for the good, some for the better, and some for the…well, let’s just say different.

AdeptiCon 2016 Registration, the First 24 Hours

Every year around Thanksgiving, registration for the world’s largest Table Top War-games Convention begins.  This particular year, AdeptiCon’s registration was on Monday, November 21st at 8pm Central Time. 

Last year was the first year that CVENT handled the Registration Cart and personally, I felt it went smoother than any other year that I had taken part in it.  This year would see me registering for my 10th AdeptiCon attendance.

So how did it go?  Is AdeptiCon still growing?  Did I get everything I wanted?

What’s A Little Scale Between Friends?

Ever since I began wargaming, there has always been issues with scale discrepancies between models within a game.  From FASA’s Battletech, to GW’s infamous Rhino that’s supposed to fit 10 Space Marines, to True-Scale debates, and so on. 

Lately though with my head-long dive into Infinity the Game, there’s been a seemingly steady creep of scale differentials between old and new models for Corvus Belli. It has been said before that not every human being is the same height, armor adds bulk and height in different ways from different makes and models, but it can’t be ignored that the newer, 3D sculpted models are of a larger species than the older, more traditionally sculpted models.

What I won’t do here is carry the "True Scale/Marines just need to not bend their knees" debate into Infinity.  That horse has been dead a long time.  But let’s address the supposed “scale creep” of Infinity, shall we?

The Road to Being a Healthier Gamer: October Update!

It’s not a sprint…it’s a marathon.

Try as I might to deny it, we’re coming up on the 1 year mark of me actually trying to get my health in order.   November’s Update will be that 1 year mark, even if I didn’t start these updates until January of this year.

Holy cow.  It’s been a year.

Throwback Thursday: Black Templar Deathwing Command Squad

When is something considered a “Throwback”?  After one year has gone by?  Two maybe?  What about three? 

It was back in 2011 that I completed a Deathwing-style Black Templars army commission for a friend, and it’s hard to believe that was 4 years ago!  Wow.  It was also before I owned an airbrush, so all my subtle blends for the blacks to make them not boring were done by hand across the whole army. 

This week in history, we’re going to take a gander at the Command Squad for this Templar-Wing army.  I’m sure by now the army composition has changed completely for a force like this, but that doesn’t make this any less of a fun project I had the pleasure of working on!

Starting Infinity with Yu Jing? Take a Look...

Recently I had the opportunity to share how I would start Yu Jing as a faction within Infinity the Game with a up-and-coming player.  This sharing ended up turning into a full-fledged article for the Wargamers Consortium!  I'm on the front page, folks!!

WGC Stories: Getting Started with Yu Jing in Infinity

A quick note though that I also make int he article:  This is not some written-in-stone law of how you should start the faction. Just like my "A Matter of Opinion" articles, this is purely my opinion after playing the faction for over a year now, casually and in about a dozen tournaments.

Head on over and take a look!  Eventually I'll post the article here, but I want to give the WGC some love, all of it well-deserved for all the content and love they give the community at large!  I'll also eventually be doing articles for the Sectorials within Yu Jing as well.

Drop a comment there or here and let me know what you think!

- Tim

The Road to Being a Healthier Gamer: September Update!

Where in the heck did this month go?!  No really, I want someone to answer this time, because I feel like it was September 1st just a couple days ago. 

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part considering how this month went…

That last statement makes it sound worse than it actually is, really.  In truth, this month has been more of a test of consistency more than anything else.  What do I mean?  Well, I'm glad you asked…

The "Broken Record" Syndrome

For those of you who aren't familiar with my "Syndrome" series, I like to approach certain aspects of our hobby with a certain tongue-in-cheek style of writing where I liken them to a medical issue. 

If you'd like to catch up, so far we've covered the "Oooooh, Shiny!" Syndrome where you just have to buy the all the new things, the "Bandwagon" Syndrome when someone jumps on the proverbial bandwagon of the new hotness or whatever is broken this month,  and the "Collectors" Syndrome that plagues some of us into concentrating all our efforts on one focused collection.  We've even reached into the "Comfort Zone" Syndrome where some of us refuse to try new things/games/factions/etc., and finally we addressed the "Hobby-Hammer" Syndrome where you plan and over-plan a project until it gets to the point that you never actually complete said project.

If you've not read any or all of the above Syndromes I've analyzed so far, click their titles above for a link to each article.  Otherwise, let's dive into the newest of the hobby-related maladies that I've discovered recently…

The "Broken Record" Syndrome.

Remembering 9/11, Those Lost and Those Who've Lost

I may have been a little absent from the blog for the past two weeks (which will change by the way, I have a lot of stuff planned for this little corner of the internet), but I wanted to ask that we take a moment to remember this day.

Be you an citizen of the U.S.A. or not, I ask that you remember the lives lost, the sacrifices made, and the loved ones who still wake up on this date every year in mourning.  Not for political reasons, and not because you agree or disagree whatever your religious beliefs are or aren't.  I ask because I believe the gaming community I'm a part of is a good one to the core of who they are despite our myriad of differences, and this was a tragedy that did not have to happen.

If you comment, comment in a way to honor those lost and who've lost as this is a memorial posting.

- Tim

The Road to Being a Healthier Gamer: August Update!

Some small part of me is looking forward to ending the year-long commitment of monthly updates, and probably not why you may think.  No, it's not because I wish to stop this journey, nor is it because I no longer want to be held accountable by the very community that I'm trying to reach.

It's because I hate overly long blog post titles.  I can't seem to think of a better one for this series for this first year and it grates on me every time I type it.  It may be silly, but still.

All that said, let's dive into August, shall we?

Throwback Thursday: Centurions Terminator Conversions

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It's been a while since we visited the past, hasn't it?  Since we took a look at my Black Templar Assault Marines last time, I thought we'd go back to my Centurions Chapter once more.

The Centurions were a labor of love those 5 to 6 years ago when I started them, and while I should have done a series of feature articles on them before (yes, KrautScientist, I'm looking at you), at least I"m able to bring them back now as a part of the Throwback Thursday series.

This time I'm going to highlight the 5 Terminators I created for them, paying special attention to the conversion work on them rather than lump the painting into it as well.

GenCon 2015 Infinity Seminar, Part 1

I had the pleasure of not only attending the Corvus Belli Seminar this year, but I got to help Doremicom with his live stream of it on his Twitch Channel!  GO HERE to check it out if you haven't already.

I would like to show all of the copious amounts of pictures I took from it, though I'll be splitting this into two posts, that will post at the same time.  Trust me, there are a ton of photos, folks.  It's better this way.

GenCon 2015 Infinity Seminar, Part 2

Starting the second half of this Seminar Recap, let's dive into the Concept Art and keep rolling!

The Road to Being a Healthier Gamer: July Update!

Yes, of course I realize it's August 6th.  I actually have three very good reasons to have delayed this particular update. 

1. GENCON!
2. DOCTOR VISIT AND BLOOD TESTS!
3. GENCON FLU!

…somehow, the first one was so much more fun than the second or third…